AQ late in the tourney
 

This is from a starts 180 s&g. At the time this hand takes place there are 23 players left and 18 get paid. I have 5765 which is below avg. at this time. The blinds are 200-400 and 25 ante.

Preflop: utg player raises to 1600. He has a lot of chips and has been aggressive. Player in mid pos. calls 1600 (and has 1400 left). I am on the button with AQo.

The way that i looked at it was that the utg player didnt need a strong hand to raise. He wanted to pick up the antes and he has been opening like 3 times a round for the last few orbits. The player that flat called confused me because i didnt really know why he was saving 1400. I felt that by raising i can get the utg to fold and be heads up with the mid position player. I decided to push with my AQ.

I am fairly new to tournaments and i think i may have overplayed my hand. What are your suggestions in situations like this?

Re: AQ late in the tourney
 

I might have pushed as you did. However, there are some problems. It is good that the initial raiser was a loose big stack. However, 4xBB UTG does not look like a steal raise. Furthermore, the caller flat called for half his stack, which is also not a good sign.

UTG might fold if he was really on a steal, but it is probable both players will call your allin.

Unless someone had AK or QQ-AA, I would not consider this a bad result. Most of the time you make this move, you will get busted out in a 3-way pot. However, my goal at this point is not the $40 for cashing but the top spots at the final table. The push gives you a chance to get back in the game.

Re: AQ late in the tourney
 

i think that if there were no caller a push would have been fine. with the caller i would wait for a better situation. you still have about 3 to 4 more orbits to pick up a better hand.

Re: AQ late in the tourney
 

Yea, you make a good point. I was thinking about a chance to go from 5500 to like 17500 or so. The flat call from a small stack kind of looked like he might have a strong hand, but as you said i was not trying to win $40 i wanted to have a chance to win the tournamnet.